30 November 2006

Still partly cloudy...but clearing

See: http://the-m-blog.blogspot.com/2006/03/imperfect-vision.html


And: http://the-m-blog.blogspot.com/2006/03/more-on-that-man-thing.html


Back in March I wrote that Imperfect Vision post and then the second one a few days later. While it's been stewing in my mind, I hadn't gone back and read those again until just now...it's fascinating the ways in which those way-out-there vision casting posts have proven, in fact, to be prophetic. But what I really wanted to talk about was more
of the same.


This last week I had the opportunity to take a DAWG day and it was awesome. 30 or so acres of Washington State park, closed for the winter and deserted except for the quail and coyotes, snug up against the grand Columbia River - an excellent place indeed to seek the Lord of Angel Armies. I got out there and found the gate closed, which meant the firewood in the trunk wasn't going anywhere unless I carried it, and that wasn't going to happen. But God, surprise surprise, is faithful. I trekked back to the far corner of the grounds and found a giant fire pit with all the wood already laid out for me, all I needed was a match. (Once again Michael - the normal rules do not apply to me...)


The Lord had a lot to say that day but I specifically wanted to talk about where I see all of this Wild at Heart business going. It's really a development of the posts mentioned above but the details are starting to come into focus.


The point that came clearest to me was this - the real purpose of all the Wild at Heart type stuff I've been working on is not really about rescuing these men's hearts. Of course that occurs, and it's glorious to behold, but that isn't the reason What's really at stake here is the next generation of boys who will be raised by fathers with ransomed, restored, and deputized lives.


It's about Odin.


It's about Will and Ben. (somehow, I think it's very much about Ben...)


It's about Poncho and Denver, Cameron and Christian, Micah, Christian, Andrew(s), Evan, Austin,
Ethan and a million other little boys to be ready for the moment they were made for. So when their cue comes - in
fifteen to twenty years - they'll know it and be ready.


You see, when we reach out and pour into a man's heart, we change a life and the Word tells me that such a task is as Christlike as possible. Leave the 99 to save the one, sell everything to secure the hidden treasure, party with the Archangels at the redemption of a single soul.


But...


Raise a generation of men who have known God's voice since they were born, men powerfully confident in their faith, mightily armored against the enemy, and you can change this country - perhaps the
world. And that, my brothers, is also as Christlike as possible.


There's a lot going on up here with BootcampNW these days and I can't wait to see what God's going to do, but it's certain that some big things are afoot. That said, I can really see this movement/ministry building momentum and starting to reach back to younger and younger men with exactly this mission in mind. Camps for adult men grow into camps for college age men, then high-schoolers...at each phase we're deepening the bench and building a sort of secret army within the body of American Christians. I don't know about anybody else, but seeing just one guy find his life and look up as if he was suddenly, right before my eyes, is truly born again, would be worth a whole lot of misery and strife. To see hundreds has been almost too much to bear. To know thousands...I can't imagine.


I feel like I should say something about our daughters...but I don't have anything. I don't doubt for a moment that God has something up his sleeve on that front as well but He hasn't shared it with me. I could certainly say something uplifting and all that, but a huge amount of damage gets done by folks who feel compelled to answer every call,
even when it isn't theirs...but that's another story. For the time, suffice it to say that God's been talking to me about guys and about sons and I need to stick to what I know. :)

4 comments:

Both Fex said...

Hmmm...

It's also about Pat and Zach and David and who knows who else (if you want to work more with the youth at church let me know. I'll hook you up with Sunday School duty. ;) Seriously though, we have several boys whose fathers don't believe or who are completely out of the picture. Male mentors are needed). But then I've always believed your sphere of influence and, dare I say it, responsibility has been writ large.

I say, let the big dog bark.

Both Fex said...

Oh, and as for the girl thing. I think of Aslan's words in The Horse and His Boy- "it's not your story."

Yet.

Chris Skaggs said...

It's interesting you say that - while it certainly seems like the most natural evolution I really am not seeing my own path leading me to working with kids any time real soon.

I reckon I could enjoy that kind of thing a lot, maybe even be good at it, but for the near future I'm seeing my role staying with adults...but who knows where this train will go. It certainly hasn't been predictable to this point...I don't see any reason for it start now.

Devin Parker said...

I discussed this - sort of, to a degree - with my friends Pat and Emily recently. I apologize if this turns out to be a bit of a tangent, but some of what you said sparked this train of thought in my mind.

Josh McDowell's latest book is titled The Last Christian Generation. It predicts that, unless the Church makes a serious effort to engage and prepare their children to know and follow the Lord, ours may be the last generation of a breed in this country. I'm concerned that A) we, as a Church, are not teaching sound theology to our congregations, or making ourselves truly aware of the wiles of the Enemy, but instead are simply relaxing into a "culture" rather than a Divine calling; and B) that we are using Sunday School as a form of babysitting or day care; instead of training our children in the ways of the Faith, and preparing our teens to face the incredible amount of peer pressure and secular/alternative-religious indoctrination they'll face in high school and college/university, we're just trying to keep them entertained until they go away or are content to sit with the other adults in the service.

Two things contributed to bringing this to mind. First, the documentary "Jesus Camp," which I haven't seen but I read enough about to want to find the website of the charismatic ministry group that runs the camp the movie covers. While I didn't necessarily agree with everything I read there, I admired the woman's mission: to make our children full, practicing members of the Church, teaching them core doctrines in terms they can understand. Second, an essay by J. P. Holding, here:

http://www.tektonics.org/gk/indictment.html

...which deals with the fact that our churches, for the most part, are sadly Biblically and doctrinally illiterate, unable to resist or defend against any sort of intellectual attack. Granted, following Christ isn't wholly about the mind, but neither is the mind to be turned off in favor of unfiltered emotion.

Anyway, even as I say all of this, I don't know what I have yet to offer but complaint. I'm not a formal member of our church out here in Minneapolis, and I don't have any children of my own (nor do I think I know how to interact with them meaningfully)...but this keeps nagging at my mind.